Valin (Book 3 of the White Lily Trilogy)- first draft

Chapter 21- The bell tower.

Ok this makes up for the delay from before, this one I had wrote out a while ago, before even reaching this point in the story, so only needed to do a bit of editing rather than write out the whole chapter.  I wrote this so many times on paper years ago but this is the settled version. 

She was stood upright in the middle of her room, bathed in the moonlight from a large window behind her. Her arms were twisted high above her head as shackles, clamped tight around her wrists and were attached to the rafters above. The skin around the metal had rubbed her wrist red raw, from either struggling too much or from it trying to support her weight for too long. Further, thicker shackles had her feet clamped firmly to the floorboards. Dakelo noted that there was a previous set of chains laid there, thinner and broken, but both sets were so tight that she could barely bend her knees to crouch down. The effect of that was clear, for her knees and shoulders were both red and swollen from the forced position.

Her head was tilted down like a limp doll; hair tumbled forward over her face to conceal it. Her pure-white hair was now matted in blood and grime, and even hacked off to different lengths. It looked like she was wearing a nightgown at one point, but it was shredded so badly that it barely hung onto her shoulders, only a piece around her neck stopped it from falling off entirely and exposing what was left of her dignity.

The sleeves of her arms had been torn off and it was clearly visible that her arms have been slashed and burnt multiple times. Some marks were scabbed over, some healed entirely, while others were freshly done and still bleeding lightly. The floor all around her feet was stained dark, nearly black with layers of both dried and fresh blood. Similar inflictions were upon her exposed legs and even parts of her chest and stomach, which was visible through the torn clothing.

He had to breathe through his mouth to save himself partially from the reeking odour in the room. He glanced to the men slumped in the room and wondered how they could stand it. The four guards had all slumped against the wall, as if they had just fallen asleep on the job, their weapons on the floor. His eyes moved to their weapons out of habit. Pikes, swords, knives were littered around their bodies. Were they the ones who inflicted the wounds on her?

It took a moment taking in the sight that Dakelo almost failed to notice the sound. Behind her, swinging back and forth was, he guessed, some sort of clock mechanism. It clicked back and forth with each swing and it only took a few seconds of the loud, echoing sound for it to get on Dakelo's nerves.

No one knew what to do; no one knew how to react. They all suspected it would be bad, but to witness it was something else entirely.

Fire Tongue was the first one to react.

He turned around and grabbed Sazoloa by the throat. He roared in anger as he pinned him up against the wall with one hand. The Prince's feet dangled clear off the floor and he began to gasp for air.

"Unforgivable humans!" he shouted. "Truly and utterly unforgivable!"

Xnifo turned to him and tried to stop him.

"Fire Tongue, stop! But he didn't bring him down.

"I swear I had no hand or involvement in this!" Sazoloa's voice choked in panic.

"I never understood the human concept of revenge," he said as steam rose from his mouth. "But I think I understand it now."

"Fire Tongue!" Dakelo said. "Drop him!" This time he obeyed the ordered, and dropped Sazoloa to the floor. Sazoloa didn't catch himself in time and his knees buckled, sending him to the floor. He wheezed as he picked himself back up, rubbing at his throat which had several red marks across the skin.